KGO-TV finally made official what I told you back in October. Ladies and gents, we have the new ABC7 Morning Show beginning Monday.Gone are Eric Thomas and Kristen Sze--they've been moved --Sze will anchor the 11 AM news and co-anchor the 5PM newscast. Thomas will anchor weekends.
New to the new morning show are recent hires Reggie Aqui and Natasha Zouves. They will begin anchoring the new show this Monday.
I'm told by a KGO source the morning program (which will supplement the network's "Good Morning America") will be "radically different" than traditional morning shows. Interpret that as you will.
Expect a lot of emphasis on traffic and weather --that's not so special but I'm hearing the producer and staff will experiment with reporters on the roads delivering "on-demand" traffic, among some of the new features. There's some mystery to the other effects. This could either be the start of something new and refreshing or something that could be a total disaster. We'll have to wait and see.
Another thing to keep in mind is the timing of the debut --Christmas Week is a notoriously slow week for commerce, including local TV News. So this "dry run", I'm betting, is a good time to work out the kinks of the new show if they occur and occur they most surely will.
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Interesting. You can smell the ambition oozing from both those two. I remember watching KGO's morning broadcast years ago when it was Sze and Janelle Wang. I recollect them both being pretty professional, but it was also like a morning audition for both of them to get a later primetime slot.
ReplyDeleteI will switch on. Eric Thomas, sorry but too dull for mornings. Robin Meade HLN news, gets my juices flowing in the morning.
ReplyDeleteOnDemand traffic from Channel 7. Perfect, because so many people watch TV in their cars.
ReplyDeleteThere's this invention called the smartphone. You heard of it?
DeleteYou don't watch TV in your car?
DeleteLameohhhhh
I hate to say it, but I do like Natasha Zouves! Still though, just like with the former great anchors of the morning show at KPIX, John Kessler and Sydnie Kohara, the current lineup at KGO of Kristin Sze and Eric Thomas to me at least, is a great pairing, despite what you are always saying that goes on behind the scenes with those two. I think they make a great on-air duo, just like Kessler/Kohara did, and I will miss them. But then too, it will be great to see Zouves the first thing in the morning! Ahhh...
ReplyDeletemaybe natasha will get invited for a sleepover at KTVU. The can get into one of those sexy pillow fights.
ReplyDeleteJuices Flowing!
If natasha gets a juice box from Keba...will that lead to boxes of wine?
Radically different? They will have pinatas and taco trucks inside the studio and some Asian lady yelling "WINNAAAAA".
ReplyDeleteI had mentioned before that KGO hit a home run when they hired Natasha. After seeing more of her I realized KGO hit a grand slam home run with the addition of Natasha. Both of those assumptions were incorrect. KGO has won the World Series...What a beautiful woman!!
ReplyDeletePeople like you are the reason it has become a beauty contest.
DeleteMaybe VDC and Nightbeat should time-shift to 6 AM and give these newbies some competition. Then it would be Game-On.
ReplyDeleteThat would require all night, overnight preparation of The Hair. Yikes.
DeleteI find Zouves' attempts to be cutesy annoying as hell. I can absolutely guarantee that this is a morning show that I will never, ever, watch.
ReplyDeleteYou will if you watch GMA. I miss Leyla though.
DeleteWell, for me, I think that Katie Marzullo got the short end of the stick on this one. I thought she was professional when she anchored the weekends, and she is a damn sight better than the muffin-top San Diego flash, not only in delivery but in telegenic properties. The camera likes her. And she comes off as real. Sadly, I would not be surprised to see her move on to where she is more appreciated.
ReplyDeleteKristen Sze was already on today at 5:00 -- and the best thing about the change is that we don't have to watch Zouves and Aqui on the weekends - insufferable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 1:13pm. Looks like Zouves will be like Gonzales, you either like or dislike. No in-between.
ReplyDeleteI won't be watching anymore either. Reggie Aqui grates my nerves. Really wish they would have kept the same team. Already turn to KTVU at 7, so I'll just start there.
ReplyDeleteAt 7am, KGO, KNTV, & KPIX all have national programming that people watch. KTVU does not. I watch CBS this Morning and tape GMA also.
DeleteI concur. Katie is quite good and a natural beauty too. Like Ama Daetz, she's easy on the eyes and more than competent reading the news. Pretty decent reporter in the field as well.
ReplyDeleteBut because she's not air-headed and blow-dried to perfection
(sorry Zouves), she'll probably have to move on.
It will be an epic fail. 1. It's being run by an incompetent EP that everyone hates. Plus, I don't care how "pretty" the new anchors practically fresh out of college are, people like familiarity. Thomas and Sze may have had their behind the scenes drama, but on-air, it still just WORKED. To snatch BOTH off the morning show at the same time and slap these two kids in their place is a stupid move. They should have had Aqui anchor with Sze for awhile or Zouves anchor with Thomas just to get people accustomed to the situation. Plus, with Gulen gone, Nicco is the only truly familiar face left (unless management chooses to can him too.) I'm all for change, but this change is too drastic. Too much, too quickly and it's just not going to work.
ReplyDeleteCan't avoid the Stepford proximity with all these people - especially the Disney ones. Local newsreaders seem soulless and it's most likely the same across all corporate outlets.
ReplyDeleteSo Natasha Zouves and Reggie Aqui are KGO7 big new hires. From what I have seen of Aqui anchoring the news so far, I think it's very questionable how strong of a newscaster he really is or ever will be. And after watching Zouves read the news, she reminds me of a perky young entertainment reporter, and not even a good one at that. Katie Marzullo is a far better news anchor and reporter than what Zouves ever will be. You could understand why Marzullo would be pissed about be replaced by both Aqui and Zouves. What kind of resumes and backgrounds do both these two have? Also, I could see why Leyla Gulen got so pissed about not being part of the new morning news team after seeing both Aqui and Zouves with their lightweight backgrounds jump over her and take over the morning news.
ReplyDeleteThere's some strong, well-established early weekday morning news' anchor teams in the bay-area market. Good luck KGO7, be careful what you wish for. Unwanted change in news personalities is not always a good thing.
What happened to Larry Beil. We love him. Like Natasha but Aqui gets me antsy with his jerky moves.
ReplyDeleteIt is all part of the chain of life. It is not a bad thing unless you thought the world worked a different way.
ReplyDelete